Day 41: flow like water

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OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT!

first snake of the year

Quarantine Day 41: You're staying at home to be safe so we are out exploring your world to let you know what's happening. 

This was an easy choice for the staff. Snakes are mesmerizing to watch and the first one encountered every year is a joy to behold. seeing one you know it survived the winter. Their body temperature is the same as the ambient air around them so snakes need a warm spring day to feel mobile. 

Over the years I met so many many people absolutely terrified of snakes. Terrified beyond any sense of reason. True. Their form of locomotion is completely alien to us bipedal hominids. Snakes are sleek and fluid. They flow like a stream of water.

We know the Maroon 5 song boasts I got "Moves like Jagger" but for me, give me moves like a Pantherophis guttatus, i.e. a corn snake. They are generally found in overgrown fields, old farms, rocky places or forest openings where they mind their own business eating small rodents and probably a skink or two. They are listed as common in Tennessee but "rarely encountered," such is their shyness. We rarely do happen upon one.

For years I helped care for an adopted corn snake at Ijams Nature Center and cannot remember how many Earth Day celebrations I attended at UT or other places with her wrapped around my left arm and hand. She was as docile a creature as I have ever known. Gentle. Smooth, she flowed like water.

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